In an opinion piece for The 74, Assistant Professor Rachel Romeo and doctoral candidate Ellen Roche, both developmental cognitive neuroscientists, warn of the potential dangers of exposing babies and young children to toys powered by artificial intelligence (AI). They express concerns about how interacting with AI toys may affect young children’s brain, social emotional and language development, including their evolving understanding of interpersonal relationships. Romeo and Roche call for policy makers to put protections in place and for parents and educators to avoid AI toys that simulate and replace face-to-face interactions.
Babies and toddlers grow and learn through daily, moment-to-moment interactions with their close caregivers. … These real-time interactions shape children emotionally, helping them map their inner experiences to their outer perceptions. There is evidence that when a caregiver and a young child interact, they sync up on every level—from eye contact to to heart rates, oxytocin levels, and even brain activity.
Unlike AI models, which can parrot human-to-human interactions, caregivers pair their words with touch, eye contact and facial expressions that signal their love and attention. Real conversations include inside jokes, local dialects, family lore, cultural wealth and the distinct conversational patterns that make a family a family and a community a community.
Development is about real-time rhythm, and every unique caregiver-child dyad develops their own. It’s not about perfection. It’s about presence, something an AI model can never and will never be able to provide.
